49ers are playing in style of their coach

Published 4:00 am, Monday, December 1, 2008

Photo: Rick Stewart, Getty Images

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ORCHARD PARK, NY - NOVEMBER 30: Marshawn Lynch #23 of the Buffalo Bills is tackled by players from the San Francisco 49ers on November 30, 2008 at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, New York. The 49ers won 10-3. (Photo by Rick Stewart/Getty Images) less

ORCHARD PARK, NY - NOVEMBER 30: Marshawn Lynch #23 of the Buffalo Bills is tackled by players from the San Francisco 49ers on November 30, 2008 at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, New York. The 49ers won ... more

Photo: Rick Stewart, Getty Images

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San Francisco 49ers coach Mike Singletary talks with officials during the first half of the NFL football game at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y., Sunday, Nov. 30, 2008. The 49ers won 10-3. (AP Photo/David Duprey) less

San Francisco 49ers coach Mike Singletary talks with officials during the first half of the NFL football game at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y., Sunday, Nov. 30, 2008. The 49ers won 10-3. (AP ... more

Photo: David Duprey, AP

49ers are playing in style of their coach

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Five games into Mike Singletary's tenure, the 49ers finally played like a team molded in their head coach's image. They beat the Bills 10-3 with three stops inside their 10-yard line, with one more inside the red zone, with bone-crushing hits when they needed them and with a much stronger sense that the defense could finish off an opponent.

Considering that this team was built by and for a defensive-minded head coach and then handed over to a Hall of Fame linebacker in October, it has been remarkably porous. Since Mike Nolan's ouster, Singletary has dramatically boosted the team's intensity and done his best to reform the offense, nudging his swashbuckling coordinator, Mike Martz, toward a ground game more suited to the roster.

But even as the 49ers improved, they carried only Singletary's fingerprints, not his signature. The win over St. Louis showcased the offense. The loss to Dallas revealed a disturbing reluctance or inability to jam Terrell Owens at the line of scrimmage.

They didn't suddenly morph into the Monsters of the Midway on Sunday. The pass rush barely breathed heavily on Bills starting quarterback Trent Edwards, who ended up more thwarted by a sore groin, which prompted a lot of weak throws and a halftime benching. Meanwhile, Marshawn Lynch racked up 134 yards rushing, including a 50-yard run early in the third quarter.

That's why Singletary and an array of players called this an ugly win. But there was nothing ugly about Takeo Spikes' long, perfectly angled sprint to track Lynch down at the 9, or the gang tackle that shoved Lynch back 3 yards on the next play.

The two Bills' field-goal attempts that clanked off the upright qualified as unsightly, as did a lot of the 49ers' offense after the first half.

But not too long ago, the offense's failures would have quickly converted into excuses for the defense, rather than the challenges they became on Sunday.

"I think this really shows our true character," Spikes said. "Week in and week out, we come in (and say), 'Oh, we gave them this and we gave them that.' I had to stress to the guys before the game: 'For this one time and one time only, let's hold each other accountable. I don't want to worry about next week. Let's do what we're supposed to do just for this one time.' And we did that."

Singletary said the team had come closer to his goal of relentlessly smash-mouth football, but he wouldn't go further than that. After defending the 49ers' underwhelming performance in Dallas earlier in the week, the coach took this win as a chance to set the bar higher.

"I don't think it's the way we have to win," he said of the ugly style. " ... I don't think our limits have been set yet."

But if the 49ers are truly to become Singletary's team, for the remaining four games and then perhaps beyond, they need to copy a lot of what they did Sunday. They have to keep transforming themselves from a defense that could never get off the field on third down to one that haunts opponents near the goal line.

All year long, they have been decent at preventing touchdowns from inside the red zone, clocking in at 46.3 percent - not far behind Buffalo's fourth-ranked 44.7 percent coming into the game. A few players, Spikes in particular, credited defensive coordinator Greg Manusky with spotting red-zone tendencies in opponents and preparing the team accordingly.

But Sunday's performance stood apart from the rest of the year. The defense clamped down harder when J.P. Losman, more of a gunslinger, replaced Edwards at quarterback in the second half. The secondary got stickier, creating coverage sacks and preventing Losman from going deep.

Management may already have decided to start anew after this season, wiping away all remnants of the Nolan regime, including Singletary, his erstwhile assistant head coach. Sunday, though, may have helped Singletary's cause a bit. It was a win on the road against a winner. That alone should carry weight.

But the details matter, too. A timeout called to set up a field goal 16 seconds before halftime counted as a strike against him. The clock could have been wound down a lot more, and the decision left room for two Bills plays - a near duplicate of the error Nolan committed last year in Arizona, where Kurt Warner used the time to fling a touchdown pass.

This time, nothing happened. The Bills weren't strong enough, or lucky enough. And the 49ers seem to be a very different team. Spikes agreed that they had changed for the better in the last month.

"Absolutely," he said, then asked his own follow-up question.

"Why?" he said and then stared toward the corner of the room, where Singletary was doing a radio interview. The linebacker said he didn't want to criticize Nolan, whom he admired. But Singletary, he said, had revived the locker room, made people believe in themselves again.

"Coach Singletary has gotten a lot of heat from his tactics, as far as motivational tactics go," he said. "But as a player, if you don't like to be challenged ... I mean, you're no good."

And until you play great defense, you're not really a Singletary team.

The numbers game

Other than the final score, the 49ers didn't win any statistical battles with the Bills on Sunday.

49ers

Bills

Points

10

3

First downs

12

18

Passing yards

133

194

Rushing yards

62

156

Total yards

195

350

Time

of possession

29:30

30:30

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